Division on truth on doping

THE world body of cycling might not have the stomach to handle the fall-out of a truth and reconciliation commission that the United States Anti-Doping Agency has recommended in its findings into the doping investigation of Lance Armstrong and five former associates.

That is the view of Robin Parisotto, an Australian member of the Union Cycliste Internationale's blood doping panel, after USADA's release of a statement on the investigation into Armstrong and the teams he rode for, and its 202-page ''reasoned decision'', which summarises all its findings in a 1000-plus page dossier that has been delivered to the UCI for ratification.

As a result of the investigation, which led to charges of use and attempted use, possession, trafficking, administration and assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up and other complicity with doping, USADA has banned Armstrong for life and stripped him of all his race results since August 1998 when he returned to racing after recovering from testicular cancer.

Armstrong did not defend himself against the charges that also reveal how extensive doping was on his teams, with the findings of the investigation still likely to have further ramifications.

The USADA case evidence not only included the testimonies of 26 witnesses - of which 15 were cyclists - but also financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results.

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart encouraged the UCI to hold a truth and reconciliation commission as recently floated by UCI president Pat McQuaid but then rejected by the UCI. Tygart labelled the evidence against Armstrong and five associates as proof of ''the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that the sport has ever seen''.

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But he also said: ''No one wants to be chained to the past forever, and I would call on the UCI to act on its own recent suggestion for a meaningful truth and reconciliation program.

''While we appreciate the arguments that weigh in favour of and against such a program, we believe that allowing individuals like the riders mentioned [yesterday] to come forward and acknowledge the truth of their past doping may be the only way to truly dismantle the remaining system that allowed this EPO and blood doping era to flourish.

''Hopefully the sport can unshackle itself from the past and once and for all continue to move forward to a better future.''

However, Parisotto suspects that such a mass confessional would reveal too much evidence for the UCI to handle.

The UCI has already been accused of covering up a positive dope test by Armstrong in the 2001 Tour de Suisse, which it denies, and has faced constant attacks for the way that it has been running the sport.

''The evidence in the USADA document to me is so overwhelming that I do not think that a truth and reconciliation process would unearth anything that the public does not already know or suspect; that doping is very sophisticated, highly organised and fosters an underlying culture of cheating that reaches down to the grassroots level of the sport,'' Parisotto told The Age.

But Anne Gripper, who was head of the UCI's anti-doping unit from 2006 to early 2010 and is now chief executive of Triathlon Australia, believes a truth and reconciliation would work.